


i was born in a summer storm

by peacefulboo



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brief Mention of Maternal Morbitity (Not for a main character), Brief Mention of Stillbirth (Not for a main character), F/M, It All Works Out For Our Heroes, There was a storm y'all, Unplanned Unattended Birth, birthday fic, graphic depictions of birth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 04:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20285578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacefulboo/pseuds/peacefulboo
Summary: At 35 Weeks and 3 Days, it seems like all around them babies have been coming late, so they figure they can skip up to Bayfield for the August long weekend with her sister and his brother and sister-in-law and they'll be home well before her due date. Then the worst storm of the decade decides to hang out right on top of the small town. Of course she goes into labor.





	i was born in a summer storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [carmen_sandiego](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmen_sandiego/gifts).

> @carmen_sandiego had a birthday a few weeks back and this is her gift. She gave me a list of prompts, and I predictably went with: “Oh no, the baby’s coming right now and we are in not at all the right place for that to happen.” (future reality, or modern day AU). 
> 
> Happy belated birthday G. I really am glad that I get to call you friend. 
> 
> This is a modern AU where Scott and Tessa are married and Scott just happens to be a paramedic and I had a shit ton of fun with this but also maybe worked out some of my on personal shit while writing it. It was cathartic as fuck for this former midwife, to be honest. 
> 
> **WARNING: This fic is a little more graphic than your usual birth fic. So just...know that going in. I'm gonna suggest every go ahead and give it a try because I think we don't talk enough about how birth works and this is one more fairly accurate depiction to add to your overall understanding, but I also get if this doesn't float your boat. You do you!**
> 
> Feel free to talk to me about the details, point out things you found ridiculous but also sit back and enjoy!

The storm builds fast. The forecast had called for some rain on Saturday, but predicted that the brunt of the large storm would happen well north of Bayfield. The meteorologists were wrong, and a total rager has been sitting on top of them for the last two days. Trees are down all around the area, including two blocking the road between the Virtue cottage and town, and the storm doesn’t seem to want to budge. 

This was not in Tessa’s birth plan. At 35 weeks and 3 days, they all figured it’d be fine for the available siblings to take the August long weekend at the cottage. Both Scott and Charlie have the day off at the same time, which rarely happens, and Tessa’s been feeling remarkably well for her third trimester and was happy to be spending time with her sister, and a kidless-for-the-weekend Charlie and Nicole, for one last time before she and Scott greet their first child. It’s more than ironic that Tessa has been doing so much mental preparation, being okay with going past her due date, just so she’s not disappointed if she does, that she hasn’t given much thought at all to the idea that she might go into labor early. 

But she’s been having contractions for the last three hours. Not Braxton-Hicks, not some mild cramping. But big, surging, painful as fuck contractions. They went from five isolated ones that were spread out and without pattern, to hard, long, and close together in a matter of less than half an hour. Her body is trembling and she can’t think straight and the pressure in her pelvis is unbelievable. She can’t help but whimper and moan as they get stronger and stronger. 

There’s sweat pouring off her brow and Scott is sick at how pale she looks. How scared. 

There’s a knock at the door and Charlie peeks into the room and jerks his head to call Scott out. 

Scott drops a kiss to Tessa’s brow, shares a look with Jordan and then whispers, “I’ll be right back, baby.” 

Tessa keeps staring at the impressionistic picture of seagulls that she’s apparently chosen as her focal point for now and doesn’t acknowledge her husband’s words. 

The look on Charlie’s face when Scott steps into the hall is all he needs to know that, if this baby is coming, and it sure as hell seems like it is, no one is coming to help. 

Fuck. 

“There’s too much damage between here and the nearest station. A restaurant where people were taking refuge got hit and part of it collapsed, they’re getting calls all around of trees blocking roads. Honestly, if Tess wasn’t in labor right now, I’d probably be trying to get out there and help out.”

“Shit.” Scott scrubs his hand across his face and tries to breathe deep. 

“I have the guidelines on my phone, just in case we need some reminders, but we’ve got this,” Charlie tells him with a hand to his shoulder. 

Scott looks at the door, knowing he needs to get back in there, but he also knows he needs to take a second reconcile husband and dad mode with his emergency services mode. His wife is going to give birth to their baby, probably soon. As a paramedic, Scott has transported and tended to his share of women in various stages of labor, but in the seven years he’s been working with the department, he’s actually only been present for maybe ten births. One time, they made it into a house in South London as a laboring mom was pushing her kid out and beat the midwife by about thirty seconds, and as such didn’t have to actually do much. The other times, they’ve been in the rig on the way to the hospital as the baby was born and were able to hand off mom and baby to capable hospital staff quickly. 

Of the other births, one was a stillbirth and another ended with a very, very ill mom, whose ultimate fate he never actually found out. Both of those instances have haunted him since, even more so since Tessa got pregnant. He knows his brother, who mostly only works with the fire department, but has been in emergency services much longer, has plenty of similar stories. 

But he can’t let those outcomes haunt him today. Right now, he needs to figure out a way to be the professional emergency responder that he is for everybody else, but has never had to be for his wife. He needs to make sure his wife and child get safely, happily, through this. He needs to be sharp and with it and helpful. 

So he takes a deep breath through his nose, blows all the air out of his lungs, repeats the process a few times and then looks back to his brother, nodding in assurance, before they both head back into the room. 

While Tessa had been sitting propped up against the head of the bed when Scott left, she’s now standing, bent over with her hands pushing into the mattress, rocking her hips back and forth. Her brow is furrowed and her hands keep clenching around the duvet cover that has a few spots of blood on it. She’s muttering something under her breath that Scott can’t quite make out until he sits on the bed just to her side. 

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening...” It’s heartbreaking to listen to and Scott wants to hurl something at the wall. Instead he tries to will whatever calm he can into the space between them, and waits for the contraction to subside before interrupting her litany. 

“Tess.” He keeps his voice low and close as he calls his wife’s attention. 

The sheer terror in her face when she looks at him is gutting and he can’t help but thread his fingers through her sweaty, wild hair and press a kiss to her brow. 

“I can’t do this here,” she tells him. “She can’t come here. She can’t come yet.”

“You can, T,” he assures her. “She’s going to come. She’s gonna come and you’re both going to be just fine.” Scott is frankly shocked at how level and sure he sounds. He has to believe it’s true, though. 

“It’s too early,” she sobs out and he pulls her into his arms. He doesn’t get a chance to say anything before Tessa cries out into his chest and digs both hands into his flank so tight that he’s fairly sure at least some of her nails have pierced his skin, even through his shirt. The pain grounds him just enough to realize that this contraction came harder and faster than the previous one. 

“Nic, I need you to lift up her nightgown and watch when the next contraction hits,” Charlie says as he comes back into the room with his arms full of towels and blankets and a heating pad that Jordan had directed him to earlier. His phone is resting on top and Scott knows exactly where he is in the flowchart that they use when they end up having to be the guardians of a birth in the field. 

“Watch _what_ exactly?” Nicole asks her eyes wide. 

“I believe the technical term is ‘perineal bulging’. See if her lady parts get bigger with the contractions. It means the kid’s probably coming.” Charlie’s voice is pitched low and he’s exuding a calm that borders on lackadaisical. 

“There’s got to be a better term for that,” Nic replies but she shrugs and does as she’s asked. 

Scott’s just glad that Tessa still has her head buried in his chest and he does his best to soothe her with words of encouragement that will hopefully help keep her distracted from the disorganized, but earnest help of the others in the room. 

Frankly, Scott is torn. Nicole has given birth four times and is one of the most chill people he’s ever met, but he knows that it makes more sense for him to be the one waiting for the baby to come, so he can help with any resuscitation should it become necessary. Trying to decide what role he should take in this clusterfuck is killing him, but he’s been trained to do what is necessary to save lives and the instinct to do so when it’s his wife and daughter wins out. 

“Jordan,” he says as Tessa is able to take a second to catch her breath. Scott jerks his head toward them beckoning his sister-in-law over. “I need you to...”

“No,” Tessa whispers. 

“I’m gonna be right here, Kiddo,” He tells her as he slides down and kneels between her legs. “I’m not leaving.”

“But you don’t need to ‘cause she’s not coming,” Tessa pleads. 

“Just in case, T,” Scott replies, knowing that arguing with her is only going to make her more tense. “Unless you want Charlie to.” Charlie has some EMS cross training but where Scott had opted to go the paramedic route and has several higher level certifications after more than half a decade in the field, Charlie has worked his way up the ranks of the Fire Department and tends to do more building inspections and fire investigation than rig riding these days. He’s preternaturally calm, but hasn’t been present at any birth but his own children in a long time. 

“Don’t leave,” she says, but it’s an agreement to let him switch positions. “You can’t leave.”

“I’m gonna be right here the whole time.” He puts his hand on her thigh and squeezes in reassurance. 

Jordan slides into a position in front of her that allows Tessa to hold onto her sister while Scott gets a little behind his wife so he’s not tucked in between her legs and the bed and has more room to maneuver. 

The next contraction does indeed show some bulging and this time as Tessa keens out a sob into her sister’s shoulder, her water breaks in spectacular fashion, soaking Scott in, blessedly clear, amniotic fluid. 

“Fluid’s clear,” he calls out to his brother, mostly just to tell someone. 

“That seemed like a lot, though. Cord?”

“I don’t see anything,” Scott says as he looks to check for a prolapsed umbilical cord. He was there on one call where they had to transport the mom and midwife both on a gurney, the midwife’s arm shoved up into mom as she did her damndest to hold the baby’s head up and off a prolapsed umbilical cord. It saved the baby’s life by allowing the blood to continue to flow from the placenta and through the cord, but he heard a rumor that the midwife lost feeling in her arm for a few days after that and actually ended up with a damaged ligament in her wrist from the sustained pressure before the docs could deliver the baby by c-section. 

“That’s good,” Charlie replies. 

“I need to push,” Tessa cries out. 

“Try and breathe through it, baby.”

“I need to push,” she repeats. 

“Just try and pant without pushing. If you can’t, you can’t, but try,” Scott encourages. With the bulging and the incredibly fast progression of labor, Scott would guess that Tess is likely fully dilated and effaced, but on the off chance that she isn’t, he’d like her to have the chance to be so before this baby slips into the world. The last thing they need when help is unable to get to them is a ruptured cervix or significant tearing. Even a few extra contractions could give her body the time to adjust just that little bit more. 

There is a longer pause between this contraction and the next, and Scott and Jordan keep up a running commentary of nonsense encouragement while Tessa goes virtually silent. It’s a lot of, “You’re doing amazing, honey,” and “You’ve got this. You’re doing it. You’re doing so, so well,” over and over on loop till the words stop making much sense and time dilates and contracts. 

She breathes, and cries, through the next contraction but Scott can see the gaping grow and knows that she won’t be able to hold back for the next one. He just hopes against hope that both of his loves make it safely over to the other side of this hurdle. 

As the next contraction hits, he doesn’t direct Tessa at all. If she has the capacity to pant through, she will, if not, her body will do what it needs to do. 

“Is that -- ” Nicole asks. 

“Yep,” Scott says curtly as he positions his hands to apply counter pressure to the head to help ease his kid’s transition into the world and support the surrounding tissues as he best knows how. 

Luckily the head doesn’t pop out so much as slide. The face is a deep red and the baby grimaces as they all wait for the next contraction. “Her head’s out, Kiddo. Next contraction you push as much as you want and she’ll be with us, okay.”

“I don’t know if I can stand up anymore,” she murmurs. “I’m so tired.”

“You can kneel down on the bed or on the floor and just lean into Jordan, okay? You’re almost there, babe. Just a few more minutes. The hard part is done and you did so good.” Scott does everything he can to keep his shit together as he stares at his daughter’s furrowed brow and has to still himself from reaching out to soothe her. He would prefer not to stimulate a gasp from her until she’s all the way out. Tessa kneels on the floor and sinks fully forward onto the side of the bed, Nicole pushing against her hips just enough to keep her from going to low and Scott’s hands making sure the baby’s head doesn’t hit the floor. 

“Did you check for a nuchal cord?” Charlie asks as he supports Tessa. 

Scott sweeps his finger along the baby’s neck to check for the umbilical cord but doesn’t feel it. Yet another thing to be thankful for. “We’re good,” he says. 

And then Tessa grunts and pushes again, and his baby girl slips into his hands. More amniotic fluid and not just a little blood comes with her and the kid is positively covered in vernix, but she’s here and she’s fairly pink and she continues to have that grimace on her tiny face. But she’s quiet. 

“There she is, Tess,” Scott says as Charlie hands him one of the not-yet-warm towels and Scott uses it to wipe the baby down some, less to clean her and more to get her to cry.

“Hey baby girl,” Scott coos at the quiet baby. “You were in such a hurry, sweet girl. Wanna let your mama know you’re here and okay?” 

The baby grimaces and curls up against him, then blinks up at him and her eyes dart around the room. “Your tone is great, little one, now let us hear your voice. Tell your mama your here,” he encourages the baby as he firmly rubs up her spine. She’s still pretty pink with just a hint of cyanosis at her fingertips and toes, and she’s still connected to the placenta, so Scott isn’t panicking yet, but he’d love nothing more than for this kid to cry for him. 

“Hey T, she’s here! You did it Kiddo,” he says as he looks up at his wife who is still panting hard as she leans against the bed and Jordan, her eyes tightly shut. “You wanna say hi?” Scott asks. 

Tessa keeps her eyes closed but kind of reaches back and says, “Hi baby. You’re okay, baby.” 

“She’s looking for you, T,” Scott says as he looks between the baby and her mom and sees the baby’s eyes dart around more. “Can you keep talking to her. Maybe Charlie can help you up on the bed and we’ll get you both up there together, yeah?” 

Tessa just nods against the mattress, her eyes starting to open as she looks behind her. “You’re here, baby,” she murmurs. “How are you here?” 

Scott notes that she still sounds out of it and watches how intensely her thighs are shaking and looks up at Charlie in concern. 

“Okay Tess,” Charlie says, voice calm as ever. “I’m gonna lift you up onto the bed so you can get to know this little one, okay.”

“I’ve got _this_ kiddo, okay T?” Scott says as he lifts up to standing with the baby and Charlie manages to get Tessa turned and up so he can slide her back onto the bed. 

“Why isn’t she crying?”

“She will, baby. She just needs a second,” Scott says as he rubs his hand up the baby’s back again. She must not like that because as Charlie settles Tessa on the bed, and Jordan and Nicole ensure that the still-attached cord doesn’t get tangled up in Tessa’s legs and Scott starts to shift the baby so he can lay her on Tessa’s chest, their baby girl lets out the saddest, sweetest, most chin quivering wail he’s heard in his life. 

Tessa chuckles tiredly as she looks down at the baby on her chest and weakly brings her arms up to hold the baby to her. “There you are. Look at you, baby girl. You’re here. How are you here?” she asks again. 

“Blood,” Nicole says as she looks down between Tessa’s legs, and the whole room tenses. 

Sure enough there’s a small pool of blood between Tessa’s legs and Scott’s hands immediately go to her abdomen to palpate the fundus. He’s never had to do this part before and it’s the stage of labor he has the least understanding of. “Charlie, talk me through this,” he says. 

Charlie picks up his phone and tells Scott what he needs to do in order to deliver the placenta. 

“The gush likely just means the placenta separated and is ready to come out,” Charlie says. 

They both know it could mean a shit ton of other things -- bad things -- but they’re hoping this is all normal so they’ll proceed like it is. 

“Guard the uterus by feeling for something like a ball just above her pubic bone, and then wiggle the cord a little with gentle traction, to feel if it’s separated and that’s the blood we’re seeing. You want to keep the balled up uterus in place as you guide the placenta through, is how I understand it.”

Scott does as he’s told, but stops for a second, “Were we supposed to clamp and cut the cord first?” 

“It’s not necessary yet. And we don’t have a clamp anyway, just make sure your pulling, gently, from the placental side not baby side.” 

They get extremely lucky and the placenta comes with little trouble and Charlie talks Nicole through massaging Tessa’s abdomen so the uterus firms up and clamps down, but Scott is still concerned about how much blood Tessa lost and how much she still may lose. His brain knows from experience that it seems worse than it looks, but it looks like so much blood and he has to swallow against the fear. 

When he looks around at the others, Jordan is pale as a ghost and Scott’s genuinely afraid she’s going to pass out.

Through it all, other than pushing when Scott asks her to, Tessa just keeps her eyes turned to her baby, who stopped crying quickly and seems to be listening as Tessa whispers to her. Once her uterus is firm and the blood flow seems to have slowed pretty much to a stop, everyone sits around the still bloodied bed, all a little dazed, just for a moment and watch as Tessa and the baby get to know each other. 

It’s only then that Scott feels the adrenaline start to subside and looks down at his own gory hands, and sees just how bad they’re shaking. 

He only gives them all a minute or two to catch their breath, before he asks for a bowl of water so he can wash his hands off. The other three start moving then as Charlie heads to get the clean water and Jordan opens one of the Gatorades, primarily for Tessa but everyone ends up taking sips. Nicole starts to assess how they’re going to get the bed cleaned up and the linens changed, when they all decide to help Tessa clean up here in this room and then move mom and baby girl to a different bed. Charlie is able to get ahold of a midwife friend finally who is able to talk them through what they need to do about the placenta and making sure the umbilical cord is clamped (though she does tell them that it doesn’t need to be a priority immediately.) She also gives them a list of things to watch for in both mom and baby and some measures they can take if things go south and they’re still out of reach of help. 

But first, as soon as his hands are clean and he’s reassured that, for now, Tessa is not going to bleed out and their baby is breathing and seemingly healthy and content with her mama, he crawls up next to them and pulls his wife into his arms and runs his finger along the baby’s face and they finally get a moment to get to know their baby together. 

“She’s perfect, Tess,” he murmurs against her hair. “Look at what you did!”

“Isn’t she just, though?” Tessa agrees. 

“You were a rock star, Kiddo,” he tells her. 

Tessa doesn’t respond, but instead turns to kiss his mouth, briefly, before dropping her lips to her baby’s head. 

“You okay there?” Scott asks as he holds them both tighter. 

“I was so scared,” Tessa allows, her voice breaking a little. 

“It was terrifying, but you did it,” he murmurs. He doesn’t understand how she did it, just knows that she did. 

“You didn’t seem terrified,” she says, not meeting his eyes. 

“I’ve never, ever been more scared in my life,” he tells her. He wants to cry, he does. But despite this brief respite, there is still so much to do, and things to watch for, and hydration to manage and clean up to see to, and he’s still the one with the most skills and knowledge in this instance. There will be time to break down later. But he allows himself this one acknowledgement, here with his wife who he loves so fucking much. He was terrified and they’ve made it through. 

*

They get Tessa and the baby settled in the room Jordan had been using and they’re all pretty glad there’s a washing machine at the cottage as Charlie and Jordan set about getting the bedding cleaned up as best they can before heading into the kitchen to pull an easy meal together while Nicole sits in bed next to Tessa to help with nursing. 

The baby is laying naked across Tessa’s abdomen and chest and Tessa can’t stop looking at her daughter’s sweet face as she holds her against her, and gently runs her finger over the baby’s cheek and jaw to try and coax her to suckle.

“C’mon you sweet thing,” Tessa croons at her. “I know that entry was rough and fast, but the sooner you start eating the sooner your silly mama will actually have something for you to eat.”

“You both are doing great, Tessa,” Nicole assures her. “My first and last kids latched on right away but the middle two were super stubborn and weren’t too interested at first. They just snuggled up with me with their noses smushed against my nipple and then slept for a couple of hours before they were ready to give it a try.” Nicole reaches out to rub the baby’s dark hair before continuing. “You just hold onto her, get all your snuggles in and get the rest you both need. That labor was fast as anything and she might need to sleep a bit before she’s ready to work that hard.”

Scott is lying on his side next to them, his hand on Tessa’s belly, just resting, but passively feeling the ball of Tessa’s uterus, making sure it stays firm. He tries to relax and enjoy these first few hours as a new family, but every once in awhile he feels anxiety spike through him as he thinks through all the things that could still go wrong. The baby looks fine. She’s quieter than he would have expected, but her color seems good, her tone seems strong, her cry, when she does cry is clear and loud, with the sweetest tremor that Nicole and Charlie assure them is likely normal. 

But the storm hasn’t stopped and they’re still stuck in the cottage until further notice and it’s proving very difficult to tamp down his worry. While he’s insanely grateful for how well it’s all gone so far, they are so far from out of the woods yet.

The baby’s eyes blink slowly, and while her little mouth moves in a suckling motion a few times, her eyes keep closing and then slowly opening, until she finally falls into sleep. It’s only then that Scott reaches up to touch her little hand, and gets a thrill when his daughter automatically squeezes his finger and holds on as he tugs away. It’s only one reflex, the one everyone knows, but at least she has it. 

Once the baby’s asleep, Nicole says something about getting cleaned up herself and to holler if they need her. 

“You doing okay?” Tessa murmurs as she rubs his hand with her own. 

“Yeah,” Scott looks up at her and gives her his best smile. “As long as you two are doing okay, I’m doing okay,” he adds. 

“So far so good, right?” she tells him with a bit of a crooked smile. 

“More than good, T,” he tells her as he presses a kiss to her arm, which is the closest bit of skin to his mouth. “I got so lucky that I get you two.”

“Same,” Tessa tells him as she runs her free hand along his brow. Part of her wonders if she should offer to let him hold their daughter, but truth is she’s not ready to give her up. The part of her that was not prepared to have her baby yet, isn’t ready to turn her over to anyone, even Scott. 

Scott looks like he’s about to say something when Jordan softly knocks on the partially open door. “We put some sandwiches together. You two should try and eat something.”

“I’d rather sleep,” Tessa admits. Now that the baby has fallen asleep and is snuggled up under a blanket, so warm against Tessa’s chest, she’s feeling the exhaustion start to hit her. 

“Just try and eat a few bites now and you can save the rest for later,” Jordan encourages. 

Since it’s something she can eat one handed, Tessa goes ahead. She manages half of her sandwich, which seems to have Jordan pleased with her, and Scott scarfs his food in half the time. She knows from experience that one of his responses to adrenaline rushes is the need to wolf down a meal. She only has enough energy to spare a thought to what the crash, which should be coming soon, will do to him, before her eyes start to get too heavy to open. 

“Help me shift her?” she murmurs, wanting to keep her baby close but not feeling secure in having her laying on her chest once she falls asleep herself. 

“How do you want her?” Scott asks, sitting up to help. 

“Maybe, I can lay on my side more and she can be in front of me?” Tessa asks, unsure if it’s a doable or smart plan. 

“I think we can make that work,” Scott replies, with a soft smile. 

“What if I roll on to her, though?” Tessa asks. She has an awareness of her baby now that the initial shock of her fast birth has worn off, but she’s so, so tired and isn’t super confident that she won’t move and hurt her if she sleeps deep enough. 

“Someone will keep watch for now, Tess,” Scott answers. “I’ll keep watch, and if I have to leave, Jordan or Nic or Charlie will. She’ll be safe,” he assures her. “You should rest.”

“Okay,” Tessa agrees. She takes a second to dip down and kiss her daughter’s head, before letting herself rest against the pillows and sleep for a bit. 

*

Scott watches them for the first half hour that they sleep. His mind stays blissfully blank as one hand rests on the baby’s back, feeling it rise and fall with her deep, rhythmic breathing, and his other hand stays on Tessa’s belly, occasionally pushing in to reassure himself that her uterus is staying contracted, and the bleeding will remain minimal. 

“She really is beautiful,” Jordan says from where she’s resting on the couch that sits below the window. Outside the rain continues to fall in sheets and the lightning and thunder are still their frequent companions. He isn’t sure why, but it makes him both a little sad, and stupidly proud that his baby girl doesn’t even flinch at the loud noise. 

“Which one?” he asks, keeping his voice low so Tessa doesn’t startle. 

“I meant the new one, but Tessa, too,” Jordan says with a quiet laugh. 

“They are,” he replies. His daughter has that lovely pink newborn skin now that the vernix has mostly been rubbed into or away from her skin. Her nose is tiny and cute, for now, and her little lips are a perfect bow shape. Her chin might be his favorite, though. It quivers when she cries and has these little dimples that make him want to cry when they show up. Right now her brow is furrowed like it was when she first made an appearance and he wonders what she’s thinking, and if babies can think, so to speak, at all. 

“You want to get a shower?” Jordan asks. 

Scott looks down and realizes that the clothes he’s wearing have dried blood stains and mostly dried amniotic fluid on them. They’d put a beach towel under him (and there’s a trash bag and two towels under Tess, functioning as a makeshift chucks pad, in an attempt to not ruin another set of linens, but they’ll be lucky if they survive the night. Hopefully this mattress will make it out of the weekend without looking like it was the scene of a murder. If they’d been thinking it through, they might have considered having Tessa give birth in the bathroom or downstairs in the kid room where the twin mattress have waterproof mattress covers, but if they had to sacrifice a mattress and some linens to safely bring this kid into the world, well Scott doubts her grandma will mind the expense. He’ll try to remember to offer to cover the expenses anyway, though. 

“You’ll stay with them?” he asks. He should probably shower and change. 

“Yes,” Jordan answers, compassion all over her face and posture. “Go take some time to get cleaned up and...breathe.”

“Is that a euphemism for sobbing in the shower?” Scott asks, with a wry smile. His sister-in-law has known him for over a decade. She knows what he’s about. 

“It’s a euphemism for acknowledging that you’re a human being who has had to take on a responsibility for the safety of your wife and baby that you were not prepared for. If sobbing’s involved, you’ll get no judgment from me.”

Scott slowly pushes up so he’s seated on the edge of the bed. His body hurts when there’s no real good reason for his body to be hurt. He’s worked many shifts that were way worse than the last few hours, but rarely have they etched themselves so markedly into his muscle and bones. He still feels like all his molecules want to pull apart any second now. He takes a minute to turn toward his family, dropping a long kiss to Tessa’s hair and then a shorter one to the baby’s. Then he squeezes Jordan’s shoulder. 

“How ‘bout you?” he asks her. “You need to go spend some time sobbing in a shower?”

She huffs out a laugh and shakes her head, “I had my moment throwing up in the downstairs bathroom after we put the bedclothes in the washer.” She gives him a wry smile. “I should be good until I cry myself to sleep tonight.”

“Thank you for all your help,” Scott tells her as he kisses her cheek. “Really.”

“It was gross, but of course,” she replies. “You smell. Go get clean.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He doesn’t cry in the shower. Crying would be a release that would signal that the crisis is over and all is well and he can let his guard down. While all of this is likely true - he hopes like hell it’s true - there’s still too much to be watchful for and he needs to be more alert and aware than what giving in to a nice sobbing session and a long shower will allow for. 

Scott dries off quickly, brushes his teeth and hair, and then gets dressed in some cut off sweats that he often sleeps in and a worn black t-shirt that has a hole in the neck. He can’t help but feel like even these ten minutes away have been too long.

His loves are still sleeping when he gets back to the room. Jordan looks up from her tablet and rolls her eyes at how quickly he’s returned but doesn’t comment further. She does hand him a bottle of Gatorade and raises her eyebrow in a demand that he drink it. 

It just reminds him that they should probably get more fluid into Tessa soon, even if he has to wake her. And that the midwife had said something about making sure she empties her bladder regularly so it doesn’t get too full that it impedes her uterus from clamping down, which Scott is having a hard time visualizing how the mechanics work, but he figures the woman probably knows what she’s talking about. 

But then he looks down at Tessa and the baby, noting how Tessa’s hand is now curled around their daughter’s back like his had been earlier, and he knows he’ll let her sleep a little longer before disturbing her again. For now he’ll count their breaths, and keep hoping for the best. 

*  
The rest of the day passes by in a blur for all of them, but little by little, as both the baby and Tessa seem to stay stable, the cottage finds a weird sense of equilibrium and calm, as the storm continues all around them. 

“Tessa, love,” she hears through the haze of exhaustion. She keeps falling asleep without really meaning to and it’s freaking her out a little. It’s night time now, and she thinks the thunder may have stopped a while ago, though she can still hear the rain. 

“Hmm?” she asks without opening her eyes. And then she hears the whimper and snuffle of the baby, which is what gets her to startle awake. “The baby,” she hisses out as she pushes herself up into a sitting position. 

“Hey, hey,” Scott says with a soothing hand on her shoulder. When Tessa looks up, he’s got his shirt off and has the baby up against his bare chest, cuddled under a towel. The baby’s fine, Scott’s fine. Okay. 

“You have her,” Tessa says. 

“She’s right here. She woke up a little before you and you were still out of it so I decided to pick her up. You woke for a second then, but went back to sleep when you saw she was okay.” 

He says it like he’s wondering if he did the wrong thing. 

“You’ve got her. Of course she’s okay,” is all her foggy brain can come up with. “Help me to the bathroom?”

“Yeah,” he agrees, using his free arm to help her up and through the hallway to the bathroom. They see Charlie in the hall and he offers to hold the baby. 

“Just remember, we don’t have diapers so she might poop on you,” Scott says with a fake innocent smile. 

“Yay meccy tar poop. It’s almost impossible to get off of you, but at least it smells like nothing. Just wait until you have to deal with formula poop. You’ll be looking back at these days with fondness.”

He’s not wrong. They’ve both been pooped on at this point, even though they’ve tried to wrap the softest towels they have around her little bum. It’s been a surreal as fuck experience. 

Tessa lets out a little laugh, which is annoying because it brings with it a gush of blood so she keeps walking toward the bathroom in hopes she doesn’t end up making a mess everywhere. Again. She will be so glad when the roads are cleared enough and the series of smaller storms have passed and they get to go home, where there will be diapers and gigantic obstetric pads and bathtubs with water they aren’t worried has been contaminated by the storms so she can sit in it. And doctors and hospitals close at hand if something should happen. 

As she sits on the toilet and Scott sits next to her on the lip of the bathtub, she puts her head on his shoulder and shakes it. “I’m still not entirely sure any of this is real. This whole day has been so weird. I had a baby, in fucking Bayfield, in the middle of the worst summer storm in the area for more than a decade, and there are bodily fluids everywhere. Like that can’t be real, right? We’re cozy in our beds waiting for our little girl to come and I’m having a crazy pregnancy dream that we’ll both laugh at because there’s no way in hell it’s reality.”

“Oh babe,” he says with a weary laugh. “It’s all very real. You had a baby with no skilled help. She’s here and she’s amazing, just like you.”

“Her daddy is pretty great, too. I hear he delivered her with his hard earned _skills_,” she gives him a pointed look here before continuing, “And kept his cool and kept both her and her mama safe.”

“Scariest and best day of my life. So glad it worked out,” he tells her as he helps her up from the toilet. As soon as she’s washed her hands she turns and hugs him, tucking her head under his chin and trying to use her body to reassure and comfort him. He did good. They all did good and they’re all thriving despite the bizarre and less than ideal circumstances. She squeezes him tight and presses a kiss to his chest. “Help me shower?”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Lemme just tell the others.”

He ducks out and is back in less than a minute and then he helps Tessa undress and stand under the warm flow of the shower head. She realizes that she’s steady enough now after a few meals and some sleep, that she could do this by herself, but there’s something about the way he seems like he’s still holding his breath, even now after they can be reasonably sure that the danger has passed, that makes her want to keep him with her. “Help me wash my hair?” she asks. 

“I love washing your hair,” he replies. 

“I’m aware,” she says with a marginally successful attempt at a wink. The laugh she pulls out of him helps her breathe a little better. 

He’s looking at her with such love and fondness that it helps distract her from how empty her body feels now that the baby is out (the first time standing up after she gave birth, when her organs essentially resettled into place now that there was no baby in the way, was the grossest thing she’s ever felt in her life.) She can almost ignore how deflated and cracked and saggy and messy she feels. Part of her is capable of knowing that she’s even more in transition physically than she was during her pregnancy but she’s always felt at home in her body, even when she was pregnant, because then she had the goal of protecting and growing her child. Right now there’s a disconnect that is unsettling. 

“Hey Tess,” Scott says as he gently pats the towel along her skin to help her dry off. 

“Yeah?“

“I love you,” he tells her with the same admiration that he’s always had when looking at her. “You’re magnificent,” he adds as he dips down to kiss her, quick and firm. And then he goes back to taking care of her. As if those words aren’t enough. 

He helps her get dressed again, and then holds her hand as they walk back to Jordan’s room. 

Nicole has the baby now and Charlie is just finishing changing the sheets. “Your mom stocks an impressive linen closet,” he tells her, half-awe, half sarcasm. 

“We’re going to need to buy her a whole new stash,” Scott says, but he’s smiling. 

“Probably. And a new mattress for our room,” Tessa agrees.

“Oh yeah that one’s toast,” Nicole says. Scott moves to help Charlie finish making up what they’ve jokingly called Tessa’s nest, but Jordan walks in then with different pillows and waves him off, so Tessa leans back against her husband and he wraps his arms around her and they rock in place for a few minutes. Tessa looks up at him and presses a kiss against his unshaven jaw before turning to look at her baby who seems to be contentedly sleeping in Nicole’s arms. She itches to take her back but wills herself to be patient since it’ll only be a minute before the three of them can get settled on the bed. 

She looks around and is suddenly overwhelmed with affection for the people in this room. Tessa doesn’t even notice her tears until she hears Scott softly ask, “You okay, T?”

“Yeah,” she answers as he wipes away her tears with his thumb. “We have a good family.”

“We really do,” he agrees. 

“We’re going to owe them dinner for the rest of our lives,” she tells him, which makes him bark out in a laugh. 

“Okay, Tess,” Charlie tells her. “Your nest is ready.” He winks at her and then heads out of the room. Scott and Jordan help Tessa get settled so she’s mostly sitting, multiple pillows supporting her. 

When Nicole hands the baby back, she startles, her eyes blinking open and then closed. Tessa can’t stop herself from pressing multiple kisses against her tiny face and breathing her in. If she felt a certain kind of aching emptiness standing under the water in the shower, she finds herself overflowing with love and joy now that her kid is back in her arms. 

“I missed you, little one. So much,” she tells her. The baby lets out a sweet little squawk and they all laugh. Tessa opens the buttons on her shirt and looks up at Nicole. “Can you stay and make sure I get this right again?” The baby had successfully latched earlier in the day but Tessa was still nervous and wouldn’t mind the help. 

Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Nicole Moir would be standing in as her defacto lactation consultant, but it’s probably the least weird thing from this whole experience. She’s always been fond of her sister-in-law, but now she feels bonded to her in a deeper way that she probably won’t fully appreciate for awhile. 

“Of course. You’ve guys got this, I’m sure, but I’ll keep you company for a bit.”

Scott sits on the side of the bed and strokes his finger down his daughter’s arm for a second, and then sits back against the headboard beside Tessa and watches as they get the baby settled and eating. As far as they can all tell the baby seems to be a champion eater and is getting the colostrum she needs from her feeds, but it’s weird knowing they’ll never know exactly how much she weighed at birth. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big a deal since she seems to be well hydrated and hasn’t gotten the shrill, shrieking cry of a baby in true distress, but it’s strange to think about. 

Once Tessa is sure that they’re in a good rhythm, they bid Nicole and Jordan goodnight with the assurance that they’ll be summoned if the little family needs them through the night. They’re all hoping that the last of the storm will pass through by morning and they’ll be able to return home within the next day. Scott is anxious to get this little one seen by her pediatrician and have Tessa evaluated by someone who can reassure them that she’s fine as well. 

“We should probably give her a name, yeah?” Tessa asks as she strokes their daughter’s cheek and watches her eat. 

Scott takes a second to swallow down the emotion that wells up at this huge task before answering. “I always thought you were crazy to pull for the name Daphne. I couldn’t really picture a baby that could pull it off,” he swallows again and kisses Tessa’s hair to buy himself some time. “But damn if it doesn’t suit her.”

“Oh good, because I’ve almost called her that a hundred times,” Tessa admits. And then she looks away from the baby and up at her husband. The tears in his eyes make her go all soft and she asks the question even though she knows the answer. “You’re sure?”

“Very.”

“Even though it’s ‘One of those names that doesn’t really mean anything?’” she asks, remind him of one of his main “logical” arguments against the name. 

“It’s her name. It means it’s her. That’s all it needs to mean,” he answers. 

“Okay,” Tessa says with a nod. Now she has tears falling, too. “You good with Bell for a middle name still?” She asks. It had been one of the handful of standard, one-syllable middle names that could slot in as a middle name. Tessa and Scott had both liked it, though they had opted for the spelling of the instrument rather than the name of a beautiful girl. Neither were terribly keen to put that on her. 

“I like it,” he agrees. “Do you like it, little one? Are you Daphne Bell Virtue Moir?” he asks. 

The baby pauses her feeding for a moment and then goes back to eating. They both laugh at the lack of response. Even that action feels like it fits the name. 

“We have a baby,” Tessa says. “And we named her.” 

Scott can hear the mix of awe and tears in her voice and buries his face in her neck as the weight and sheer terror of the last 15 hours crashes over him. 

Tessa reaches up and behind her and runs her hands through his hair as she tilts her head against his. “We made it through, Scott,” she soothes. “We got through it. You got us through it. You were so solid and strong and you made the right calls and we’re both here and look at her she’s perfect and secure and so, so loved.”

Scott keeps his face hidden in the crook of her neck until all the excess emotion has been washed out of him. It’s not his longest crying jag, by any stretch, and he doesn’t sob, not really. But he lets the emotions he’s been holding at bay course through and out of him and at the end, he still has Tessa and their baby girl safe with him.

“I was wondering when it’d hit you,” Tessa admits with another kiss to his jaw. 

“You and me both,” he says. 

“Wanna hold her? You haven’t done too much of that, yeah?” she offers. 

“Can I hold you both?” he asks. 

“Always,” she answers as she shifts so that the baby is cradled in his right arm, and Tess settles so she’s curled around his left side, the weight of his arm heavy and comforting around her shoulders as she lays her cheek against his chest. 

They both know that they’ll be processing this day for months, and probably years to come. They know that the fear is now somewhat etched in their sinew and will take some time and work to excise. But for now, in this quiet, borrowed room, as the rain, now gently, falls outside, they know they’ve made it through, their little family, and they won’t ask for more than that.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, if you dug it and made it to the end, drop me a comment to let me know! You can find me at boo-writes-stuff on tumblr if you want to ask more indepth questions about anything relating to TS RPF, and at peacefulboo if you want to chat me up about birth, figure skating, other writing, hilarious memes. 
> 
> Thanks a million to the usual suspects for their beta job. This one was a doozy and they are the best.


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